The 2026 Tour de France now underway, and the riders have already begun hauling themselves up the mountains of southern France. Over the next fortnight they will complete half a dozen mountain stages in the Alps and Pyrenees, climbing thousands of feet in elevation. And the Tour’s best climber will be rewarded with the famous Polka Dot jersey – and the title “King of the Mountains”.
The apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans has been compared to a majestic mountain, most recently by Andrew Ollerton of the Bible Society. Romans is a great work of Christian theology that is momentous and awe-inspiring in scale and scope. A ‘Mont Blanc’ in the middle of the New Testament, you might say!
And if Romans is akin to a mountain, then Romans chapter 8 is its summit. Its a chapter that affords a magnificent view of God’s saving work. A chapter that will be the focus of our sermons for the rest of this month.
If you have ever climbed or cycled to the top of a mountain, high above the concerns of everyday life, you sometimes get the feeling of time standing still. The world may be moving at a thousand miles an hour down below, but up on the summit, things feel different – somewhat detached from the usual passage of time.
And our reading from Romans 8 this morning gives us a similar, elevated perspective on time. For in the first eleven verses of this great chapter, the apostle Paul lays out for us the three ‘tenses’ of salvation – he describes the past, present and future reality of God’s work in the lives of Christians. From his inspired, mountain top perspective, Paul explains what God has done, what God is doing, and what God will do for every follower of Jesus.
So let’s look at each of these in turn…
The Past: Christ’s condemnation secured our justification (v.1-4)
Paul begins by looking backwards. He wants to reassure every Christian reading his letter that we’re forgiven our sin and acquitted from guilt. There is, says Paul, ‘no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.’ If we are believers in Jesus, we are justified in God’s sight. That word means that God holds nothing against us, our sins are forgiven, our guilt has gone – our destiny is definitely Heaven, not Hell.
But how can Paul be so sure of this, we may ask? How can he be so confident that Christian believers are right with God and on the road to Heaven? After all, haven’t we all broken God’s moral law at one time or another. For example, we may not have murdered but we have been unreasonably angry. We may not have committed adultery, but we’ve probably looked lustfully. We may not be outright liars, but we’ve probably all been ‘economical with the truth’ on occasion!
Such sins are not held against Christians, says Paul, because Christ has already paid the just penalty for our sins, he has already taken the blame for all our wrongdoing. As Paul puts it in verse 3, God sent his Son ‘in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. He condemned sin in Christ’s flesh.’
In other words, a great swap has occurred, a perfect exchange has been performed for our benefit. Nailed to the cross, Christ was pierced for our transgressions. He went through Hell so we don’t have to. Jesus willingly took our guilt, and by faith we receive his righteousness in return. His sacrifice secured our salvation, our moral debt to God has been fully discharged.
I hope we are moved by this glorious truth, this good news at the very heart of the Gospel. Rejoice that we are reconciled with God through the death and resurrection of his Son! Celebrate that Christ has made us citizens of God’s everlasting kingdom!
One man who was certainly moved by all this was the eighteenth century hymnwriter, Charles Wesley. His famous hymn, “And Can it Be” is centred around this theme, and its final verse is directly inspired by the opening sentence of Romans chapter 8. I will spare you my singing voice, but let me read Wesley’s verse for you:
No condemnation now I dread; Jesus, and all in Him is mine! Alive in Him, my living Head; and clothed in righteousness divine! Bold I approach the eternal throne, and claim the crown, through Christ my own!
Wesley, like Paul, wants us to be certain that Christ’s condemnation has secured our salvation. Alleluia!
The Present: The Spirit’s presence promotes our sanctification (v.5-9)
From the past, Paul’s perspective next turns to the present. He shifts his mountaintop position to look around him in the here and now. And the great news he shares with us is that the Holy Spirit is making us more and more like Jesus. Or, in more technical terms, the Spirit’s presence is promoting our sanctification.
If we’re a Christian we have the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit is living and active within us. There is no grey area here, no halfway house. Paul puts it crystal clearly in verse 9: ‘If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.’
The Holy Spirit is the first and most important gift that Jesus gives to each one of his followers. Whether we’re the apostle Paul or a 21st century Christian in Ashton Hayes, we’ve all been given the gift of God’s Spirit.
And the greatest work the Spirit wants to do in our lives is to sanctify us – to make us increasingly like Jesus in our belief and behaviour, in our attitudes and actions. The Spirit wants to produce in us those famous fruit – the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, and self-control.
But he needs our co-operation to complete this task. We need to keep in step with the Spirit, to walk his way, to follow his lead – or, as Paul phrases it in verse 5 today, we need to ‘set our minds on what the Spirit desires’.
This means we need to watch our thoughts and ambitions. We need to be careful what we fill our heads with. We’re to fill our heads with noble ambitions and godly priorities, not the ‘desires of the flesh’, says Paul.
As he writes elsewhere, “whatever is true, whatever is worthy of respect, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if something is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things” (Phil 4:8).
Our thoughts should not be focused on ways to accumulate wealth, gain influence or maximise our personal comfort, but on the ways of the Spirit. Ways set out for us in Scripture. Ways that become clearer to us when we pray more. Ways communicated to us when we choose to listen to our conscience.
As we navigate daily life in the here and now, God’s Spirit is here to strengthen, guide and sanctify us. So lets set our minds on his ways, and walk in them.
The Future: God’s power guarantees our glorification (v.10-11)
Thirdly and finally, Paul’s attention moves from the present to the future. As he gazes into the distance, the apostle lays out for us the sure and certain hope of every Christian. A hope of glory in a world to come – a hope of resurrection life.
Paul refers to this hope in verses 10 and 11 doesn’t he? Because he writes: “If Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life[d] because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies.”
In short, God’s power guarantees our glorification. The same power of God that raised Jesus from the dead on the first Easter Day will one day raise us to resurrected life in the world to come. Christ’s resurrection was a prototype, a foretaste of the glorious reality that will one day be experienced by each and every Christian believer – life in a renewed creation, free from sin, disease and death forever.
This Christian hope is not ‘pie in the sky’ based on wishful thinking, but a confident expectation based on the historical reality of Jesus’ resurrection.
Nor is it some vague hope of a vague ethereal disembodied existence (playing harps on a cloud?), but of a new body in a new world. Its a wonderful hope, a real hope – something well worth waiting for.
Conclusion
So, as I finish, and we descend from the mountain-top of Romans 8, I hope we have a renewed understanding and appreciation of our salvation. A salvation in three tenses, affecting our past, present and future:
- Because believers in Christ can look back to his death on the cross, confident that he has carried our condemnation.
- We can set our minds on the things of the Spirit, confident that he wants to make us more and more like Jesus.
- And we can look to the future with confidence too, knowing that God is willing and able to raise the dead.
All in all, it’s a wonderful vision of assurance and hope. A vision to celebrate. A vision too good to keep to ourselves. Who can you share it with, I wonder?